34 BULLETIN 4, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



HOW TO SCATTER THE SEED. 



Any means of scattering the seed which will distribute it evenly is 

 satisfactory. Ordinarily a compact hand seeder should be used, but 

 an experienced man can broadcast as well by hand; this method is 

 certainly the most convenient, and doubtless the most economical. 

 With either machine or hand method windy days should be avoided 

 for the sowing. It is sometimes desirable to make double sowings, 

 in which half the quantity of seed is sown in passing up and down 

 the area and the other half by crossing at right angles to the first 

 sowing. 



SOIL TREATMENT. 



It is too often assumed that grasses and other forage plants will 

 grow anywhere and under all circumstances. The writer has no 

 hesitancy in stating that he has yet to see the range conditions under 

 which it will not pay to give some slight treatment to cover the seed, 

 regardless of the kind of seed sown and the character of the soil. 

 Of the various causes for failure the lack of soil treatment, either 

 before or after sowing, was chiefly operative in 61 out of 168 unsatis- 

 factory experiments. More failures were due to not covering the 

 seed after sowing than to drought, wrong selection of species, and 

 wrong time of sowing. 



It is neither necessary nor desirable to cover the seed deeply, and 

 expensive operations are rarely warranted. The investigations prove 

 that some seeds, when planted more than half an inch deep, tide 

 over the season or fail to germinate. The plants are more likely to 

 become permanently established when the seeds are merely hidden 

 below the surface of the ground than when covered more deeply. 



Where the soil is friable and free from vegetation the brush har- 

 row should be employed, but where compact and supporting vegeta- 

 tion, which binds the soil surface, the A wooden-peg harrow should 

 be used. On such situations sheep driven in a compact body after 

 sowing will plant the seed more thoroughly than any other of the 

 methods tried. There is danger of too deep planting if sheep are 

 used on the loose soils. 



PROTECTION AGAINST GRAZING. 



Regardless of the species sown, the lands should be protected from 

 grazing animals until the plants have made sufficient development 

 to withstand moderate grazing and trampling. In most places graz- 

 ing should be entirely restricted during the first season after seeding, 

 because both sheep and cattle destroy the young plants. In the 

 autumn of the second year there is little danger of serious injury 

 from moderate grazing. 



